Wednesday, June 22, 2005

There was a thread over on NDN a few weeks ago debating the hiring record of Monk vs. Father Ted as it relates to the football program.

I thought I'd take the discussion a bit further, look at all the ND presidents throughout history and compare the records of the football teams based on who was in charge when the hire was made. (For entertainment purposes only, of course.)

Here's what we've got (sorted by winning percentage):

President

Years / Coaches

Games

Wins

Losses

Ties

Pct.

John W. Cavanaugh

1908-1930 (Place thru Rockne)

200

171

19

10

.880

John J. Cavanaugh

1946-1953 (Leahy, postwar)

77

63

8

6

.857

John O'Hara

1941-1943 (Leahy, first time)

30

24

3

3

.850

Hugh O'Donnell

1944-1945 (McKeever, Devore)

20

15

4

1

.775

Andrew Morrissey

1894-1907 (Morison thru Barry)

107

74

25

8

.729

Charles O'Donnell

1931-1940 (Anderson, Layden)

90

63

22

5

.728

Ted Hesburgh

1954-1996 (Brennan thru Holtz)

474

329

137

8

.703

Edward Malloy

1997-2004 (Davie, Willingham)

97

56

41

0

.577

(It's embarrassing that a Morrissey is ranked lower than not one, but two Cavanaughs...but I digress.)

Despite Hesburgh's relatively low overall percentage (if you can call 70% low), Father Ted owns the all-time record for wins, and unless we see another 40-year tenure for a president at ND, this one's gonna stand up for time immemorial.

Also...check out that dropoff for you-know-who. Cough.

By the way, here's the record for wins according to the AD in charge at the time. Note that before Moose, Notre Dame didn't really have independent athletic directors; Rockne, Leahy, etc, all served as their own ADs.

Athletic Director

Games

Wins

Losses

Ties

Pct.

Krause

285

199

81

5

.707

Corrigan

189

130

56

3

.696

Wadsworth

60

35

25

0

.583

White

37

21

16

0

.568

Where's Dick Rosenthal, you ask? Well, he came in after Holtz was hired, and left before Davie, so technically he's never hired a coach at ND. That's not to minimize the great job Rosenthal did as AD; it's just that he doesn't qualify for this (narrow) study.

Finally, here's the backup data for all of this, just for the hell of it.

Coach

First

Last

Years

Games

Win

Loss

Tie

Pct.

Prez

AD

James L. Morison

1894

1894

1

5

3

1

1

.600

Andrew Morrissey

H.G. Hadden

1895

1895

1

4

3

1

0

.750

Andrew Morrissey

Frank E. Hering

1896

1898

3

19

12

6

1

.632

Andrew Morrissey

James McWeeney

1899

1899

1

10

6

3

1

.600

Andrew Morrissey

Pat O'Dea

1900

1901

2

20

14

4

2

.700

Andrew Morrissey

James F. Faragher

1902

1903

2

18

14

2

2

.778

Andrew Morrissey

Red Salmon

1904

1904

1

8

5

3

0

.625

Andrew Morrissey

Henry J. McGlew

1905

1905

1

9

5

4

0

.556

Andrew Morrissey

Thomas A. Barry

1906

1907

2

14

12

1

1

.857

Andrew Morrissey

Victor M. Place

1908

1908

1

9

8

1

0

.889

John W Cavanaugh

Shorty Longman

1909

1910

2

14

11

1

2

.786

John W Cavanaugh

Jack Marks

1911

1912

2

15

13

0

2

.867

John W Cavanaugh

Jesse C. Harper

1913

1917

5

40

34

5

1

.850

John W Cavanaugh

Knute Rockne

1918

1930

13

122

105

12

5

.861

John W Cavanaugh

Hunk Anderson

1931

1933

3

27

16

9

2

.593

Charles O'Donnell

Elmer F. Layden

1934

1940

7

63

47

13

3

.746

Charles O'Donnell

Frank W. Leahy

1941

1943

11

30

24

3

3

.800

John O'Hara

Ed McKeever

1944

1944

1

10

8

2

0

.800

Hugh O'Donnell

Hugh J. Devore

1945

1945

1

10

7

2

1

.700

Hugh O'Donnell

Frank W. Leahy

1946

1953

1

77

63

8

6

.818

John J Cavanaugh

Terry Brennan

1954

1958

5

50

32

18

0

.640

Ted Hesburgh

Krause

Joe Kuharich

1959

1962

4

40

17

23

0

.425

Ted Hesburgh

Krause

Hugh J. Devore

1963

1963

1

9

2

7

0

.222

Ted Hesburgh

Krause

Ara Parseghian

1964

1974

11

116

95

17

4

.819

Ted Hesburgh

Krause

Dan Devine

1975

1980

6

70

53

16

1

.757

Ted Hesburgh

Krause

Gerry Faust

1981

1985

5

57

30

26

1

.526

Ted Hesburgh

Corrigan

Lou Holtz

1986

1996

11

132

100

30

2

.758

Ted Hesburgh

Corrigan

Bob Davie

1997

2001

5

60

35

25

0

.583

Edward Malloy

Wadsworth

Tyrone Willingham

2002

2004

3

36

21

15

0

.583

Edward Malloy

White

Kent Baer

2004

2004

1

1

0

1

0

.000

Edward Malloy

White

So here's a good question: should Monk get credit for Charlie Weis? Or does Charlie represent the first Jenkins coach? Technically, Monk presided over the Weis hire, but given his opinion on the transition, it just wouldn't seem right. Give Charlie to Father Jenkins.